Piano Whiz Gavrilov Gives A Carnegie Debut Here

April 27, 1985|By Stephen Wigler, Sentinel Music Critic

The small audience that filed into Carr Performing Arts Centre Friday night expected to hear pianist Horacio Gutierrez play the final concert of the Orlando Community Concert Association's season. Instead they heard association president Louis Roney announce that Gutierrez had canceled the concert because of illness and would be replaced by Andrei Gavrilov.

''Andrei who?''

The question was audible in whispers and apparent in puzzled expressions throughout the hall. But some people in the audience, who recognized Gavrilov's name, appeared galvanized. They knew that Central Florida was about to hear the pianist who on Sunday, in New York's Carnegie Hall, will make one of the most eagerly awaited debuts in that institution's distinguished history.

Gavrilov, 29, is acknowledged by most experts to be the finest younger exponent of the Russian style of piano playing in the world, the heir apparent to such lions of the keyboard as Vladimir Horowitz, Emil Gilels and Sviatoslav Richter, who is Gavrilov's mentor.

In the program of Chopin works he played Friday night, the same program that he will play Sunday at Carnegie, Gavrilov left no doubt that he ranks among the finest pianists alive. With shoulders like those of a professional wrestler, he looks as if he can tear a piano apart -- indeed, he can.

The coda of Ballade No. 1 roared like a lion. In Ballade's Nos. 2, 3 and 4, which followed, the playing was if anything even more impressive. Ballade No. 2 exploded in an avalanche of notes; the piano in the more lyrical third and fourth ballades, sang as if bewitched. So impressive was Gavrilov's performance that the audience of about 700 was shouting bravo at the end of Ballade No. 1.

Gavrilov made headlines around the world in 1974, when -- at the age of 18 -- he took first prize in Moscow's prestigious Tchaikovsky Competition. After a highly acclaimed series of appearances and recordings made in the West, it appeared he would become the piano world's next superstar. But the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in late 1979 caused a break in East-West cultural relations, and Gavrilov -- along with other Soviet artists -- suddenly ceased appearing in the West.

Last fall the young musician returned to Great Britain for the first time in nine years and created a furor with interpretations of Chopin that left critics either wildly enthusiastic or severely condemnatory. At that time, he announced that he wished to play in the United States.

In February he returned to Great Britain for more concerts and recording sessions, and he created even more controversy. This time, however, it was not Gavrilov's rocket-powered tempos and explosive fortes that caused the excitement. Gavrilov and his wife startled the international community with a request to the British Home Office that they be granted permission to continue living there.

It was not exactly a request for political asylum, but dangerously close. It reminded most observers of pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy's similar request to the British Home Office 22 years before. Within days the Soviet Union granted the Gavrilovs a renewable one-year visa so that the young pianist could concertize freely in the West. Some observers of Russia's musical scene said at the time that this was the Soviet Union's way of holding on to its most highly regarded young pianist. The Soviet government had worked a similar deal with Gidon Kremer, the young superstar violinist, who had been granted permission to go and come freely.

But Gavrilov's situation was potentially more embarrassing for the Soviet government. His wife, Natalya, is the daughter of the head of the Soviet banking system, one of the highest-ranking members of the Politburo and said to be a close friend of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

According to International Creative Management, the New York agency arranging Gavrilov's American bookings, concert dates for their Soviet phenomenon had to be arranged at the last minute. Since all-important dates in major halls usually are booked more than in a year in advance, Gavrilov is booked for concerts that other artists have canceled.

A major career in the West seems to be a certainty for Gavrilov. When he won the intensely competitive Tchaikovsky Competition 11 years ago, Gavrilov conquered the likes of Youri Egorov, Andras Schiff, Zoltan Kocsis and Dezso Ranki, all of whom have gone on to enjoy major international careers.

''His playing showed unlimited abilities,'' said Dmitri Paperno, a prominent Russian pianist who came to this country several years ago and now lives in Chicago. Paperno said he has not heard Gavrilov in person since 1974, but that he has followed Gavrilov's progress through recordings.